How and When Metrics and Datasets Update

In general, metrics will only refresh when they're active, meaning that the dashboard is currently being viewed in a browser or app. The metric’s “refresh interval” will affect how often the data is updated while that metric is active.

What is an "active" metric?

A Metric is active and will update when:

Editing the metric and clicking “Get Data” from the Data tab of the Metric Builder

Selecting “Refresh” in the dashboard action menu

The dashboard is open on a computer and the metric hits its refresh interval (even when using the Share URL)

A PDF report or a Slack post is scheduled to be sent. (Before it’s sent, Grow will update those metrics)

Opening the dashboard in the mobile app

Pulling to refresh in the mobile app

Note: When editing a metric, the Metric Builder will keep a 5-minute, short-term cache where we will not fetch new data even if you hit the “Get Data” button, unless you change the parameters. The exceptions to this are file-based data sources (Google Sheets, Dropbox, etc.). These will refresh the data each time you click the “Get Data” button.

When did a metric last update?

You can see when each metric last updated from the dashboard by hovering your mouse over the metric or clicking the info button at the top right:

Or in Expanded View by clicking the “Details” button at the top left:

What happens when a Metric updates?

All the metrics on a dashboard get queued up for a data refresh when a dashboard is active. This is indicated by the blue bar at the top of each metric. Tip: The fewer metrics you have on a dashboard, the quicker it updates.

Each metric will update the data used report by report. Grow pulls from the data source, which can be one of three different sources.

Directly from the API

From a dataset

From a stored report

Using the Data Connection/API

If a report is tied directly to an API (using the data connection) it will fetch data from that software application.

Using a Dataset

When a report is using a dataset, it will trigger that dataset to update, using the same logic as when a metric updates, report by report. Additionally, Datasets have their own refresh intervals and are “active” when a metric built from it is being actively viewed.

Tip: If one dataset is used across multiple metrics on a dashboard, it will be updated once and update those metrics more quickly. So it is best to build metrics from common datasets.

Note: If you nest datasets, each dataset has to update before the metric at the top layer updates. For example, if Report 1 in the metric is a dataset that contains a different dataset as one of its reports, then that second dataset will have to update before the dataset in Report 1 will update, then the other reports will update for the metric. The more nested datasets you have on a metric, the longer it will take to update the metric.

Using a Stored Report

When a report is using a Stored Report, it will pull whatever data is stored there. Stored reports have their own refresh interval and keep your data up-to-date behind the scenes on that regular cadence.

Examples of how metrics will update

The metric is set to update on a 15-minute refresh, with Report 1 using a dataset with a 1-hour refresh interval.

Every 15 minutes the metric will use the data in the dataset for Report 1. After an hour passes and the metric hits its next refresh interval, it will cause the dataset to refresh and pull the latest data for report 1.

The metric is set to update on a 15-minute refresh, with Report 1 using a data connection and Report 2 is a dataset set with a 1-hour refresh interval.

Every 15 minutes the metric will pull the latest data from the API for Report 1, and will use the data in the dataset for Report 2. After an hour passes and the metric hits its next refresh interval, it will update Report 1 the same way and it will cause the dataset to refresh and pull the latest data for report 2.

Troubleshooting

When it appears that some metrics are not updating, here are some questions to consider before contacting support:

When was the last time you looked at the dashboard?

Is it currently updating? (Do you see the blue bar at the top of any metrics?) Did you give it enough time to actually refresh?

Does it have an error icon on the metric? (The yellow triangle at the bottom left of the metric.)

Did you try to refresh the whole dashboard?

Did you edit the metric to see if the data settings & transforms show any errors?

In the Metric Builder did you try hitting “Get Data” to refresh the data?